


True Love and Other Lies

by philipiguess



Category: The Wrath and the Dawn Series - Renée Ahdieh
Genre: Christ more relationships than a jane asuten novel, F/M, M/M, Original characters kind of - Freeform, Sleeping Beauty AU, also there's a culturally accepted and untaboo cousin marriage, fairytale AU, how does this curse get solved? read on, true love? maybe?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29117904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/philipiguess/pseuds/philipiguess
Summary: #1 LINE FROM THIS FIC“Kiss Khalid! Kiss my cousin! On the lips!” Jalal shouts at her.
Relationships: Hassan Ibn al-Rashid/Yasmine al-Sharif, Jalal al-Khoury/Despina al-Sharif, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid/Yasmine al-Sharif, Shahrzad al-Khayzuran/Khalid Ibn al-Rashid
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	True Love and Other Lies

The Caliph was fucking tired. 

He’d been unable to rest for five days. He only collapsed into sleep for a few hours each night, rising again with the thought that today would be the day the mages from the Fire Temple arrived and hope returned to the palace. Today, at dawn, they’d finally arrived, and yet he was no less exhausted when he squeezed his eyes shut and settled his mantle on his shoulders. He’d only rest when this was over.

When he left his chambers, his mantle felt more like a blanket for him to hide within than the terrible weight of yesterday. Yesterday he’d torn it from his body and thrown it into a corner of his dark bedchamber— what use was his royalty to him if it couldn’t solve this curse? And what use was he to his role if he was this helpless? 

The waiting retinue of guards fell into quick step. Jalal had been waiting at the doorway with them, and he strode beside the Caliph, offering a small smile of reassurance. The Caliph just barely forced one back. Jalal was as worried as he. Well, worried had ceased to be the right word. Uncle Aref would know the right word. Uncle Aref had seen this coming, had been there at all the relevant events, had— 

“The mages are being brought to his chambers,” Jalal said softly. “They’ll wait outside until we arrive, if they beat us. They’ve already started developing plans and teams of strategies.”

The Caliph nodded. Nodding has always been a large part of my job, he thought, but now that he could barely think in a straight line, uninterrupted by curses, he found himself giving his cousin and uncle and advisors nod after nod. 

They came into view of the waiting mages. The Caliph found himself exhaling in relief at the sight of their gathered talents in the marble hall— somehow, despite looking as if none of them had known how to dress for coming to the palace, most of them had tried very hard, one of them hadn’t cared and one of them had only just been dragged out of the ocean, or perhaps _because_ of their diverse motley looks, he was sure one of them would know what to do. They’d all _looked_ like they’d been gathered from across the globe and spent the last few years pretentiously isolated in the mountains with other mages, producing fire out of thin air and forgetting to buy new clothes. 

“Hello,” he said once they’d gotten within speaking distance. “I’m the Caliph; this is Captain of the Guard Jalal al-Khoury; the fiancee to the prince is not currently here.” God knew where Yasmine had gone or what she was doing. “Thank you all very much for coming. We truly appreciate it.”  
The group nodded, bowed, and gave him nervous smiles. 

“Would you like us to introduce ourselves?” the oldest woman asked. The Caliph nodded. “My name is Anahita; I’m one of the two head mages at Fire Temple.” Anahita’s braid was long, her eyes were blue, and her face and voice were serene. She gestured for the others to quickly arrange themselves in some predetermined line.

“I’m Artan,” the boy at the head of it said. He was tall and Eastern-faced, and completely bald, and one of his hands tugged at his ear, perhaps in place of hair. “I’ve got a lot of experience with curses.”

  
“I’m Shahrzhad,” a wild-haired, teenaged girl with eyes so fierce they were nearly accusatory when they landed on him said. “I do anything involving life and death.”

“Parissa. I read bones and stars.”

  
“My name is Mas. I make and take away blessings and curses.”

“Musa Two. Musa One is the other head of Fire Temple, I’m just a mage, a mage of all trades.”

The Caliph nodded. “Thank you all for coming,” he said. “Would you like to see him?” The group nodded— Sharzhad’s eyes in particular brightened, as if she couldn’t wait to get her hands on the problem. So the Caliph nodded towards the guards, who opened the doors, and let the mages in. 

The Caliph closed his eyes for a moment as he heard them enter, heard them take breaths and stances as they saw his little brother. 

As they saw the prince, propped upright in his grand bed, the light of day washing his face and closed eyes with soft gold.

The boy who couldn’t wake up.

Khalid Ibn al-Rashid.

**Author's Note:**

> so after posting one (1) chapter for another twatd fanfic and promptly fucking off to spend a good amount of time writing for school and working on Serious Real Writing, i was like damn, i need to relax and get back into writing fiction just for fun! so here's a sleeping beauty au. i'm super excited that more people have posted in this little fandom!
> 
> i also have a modern university au and several twatd digital art pieces partially done, because a.d.d. excitement brain go brrrr. so, if anyone wants to collab writing the modern university au (shahrzhad is an english/journalism major and writing tutor, khalid is an engineering student, despina is an unpaid intern) let me know!
> 
> \+ one more thing, if you want more twatd content, go check out incorrectwatdquotes on tumblr, the old blog i used to run. it has (checks notes) 407 posts!


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